Hi, I would really appreciate anyone who could check over these sentences to ensure all the punctuation is correct. This is an assignment for a correspondence course I'm taking, and I think I have them mostly right but I'd like to be sure. (This lesson focuses mainly on the period, question mark, exclamation mark, comma, semicolon, colon, dash, apostrophe, hyphen, quotation marks, italics/underlining, parantheses, brackets, slashes, capital letters, numbers)
a) Her favourite writers, Joyce Caol Oates and James Dickey, are both contemporary.
b) Your faults are an uncontrollable temper, inexperience, and indifference to your
work. (should there be a colon after the word are?)
c) Since we had driven the car 87,000 kilometres, we decided to turn it in.
d) If siege is spelled with an ie, why is seize spelled with an ei?
e) "What we need," said Mr. Blevin, the union spokesman, "is a good day's pay for a
good day's work."
f) Many people perhaps most peopledo not know from what material their clothing is
made.
g) The government was faced with a difficult task: it had to persuade a sceptical,
frustrated people that the energy shortage was real.
h) Her camera, her new dress, and her books all of which she left in her carwere
stolen.
i) I have just received an unexpected letter from the director of the Bureau of Internal
Revenue. (should director be capitalized?)
j) The lawn, a little ragged, needs to be cut; the hedge, shrubs, and ivy need to be
trimmed; the flowers need to be watered; and not least of all, the gardener needs to be
paid. (should the semicolon after watered be a comma, since the next word is and?)
k) The late Will Rogers' favourite saying was "I've never met a man I didn't like." (should there be a comma after was?)
l) Judy Garland is best remembered for her role in the 1930's film, The Wizard of Oz.
m) Does anyone remember who said absolute power corrupts absolutely? (according to my lesson, quotation marks arent supposed to be used on commonly known quotes, so I didnt use them.)
n) I make it a point to read the New York Times every day and The New Yorker every
week; only rarely, however, do I get around to Time or Newsweek.
o) "You can't do that!" they shouted from the balcony. "You can't! You can't!"
p) The president's wife's activities are always reported in the press--so are his
children's. (not sure if this dash is right...)
q) Should one judge candidates from the speeches they make, from the printed matter
they distribute, or from the ideas they generate?
r) To be a millionaire, by the time you are thirty you will have to take large risks, be
lucky, and have creative ideas.
s) "Enjoy the view!" we called out as they left for the mountain-top. We had wisely
decided to wait for them in a meadow half-way up.